New experiments harness satellite communications for wireless networks, show fiber-class speeds in results

Wireless speeds could advance to new levels, complete with a terahertz transmitter that can send data at 100 gigabits a second over a single channel in the 300GHz band. A group of Japanese researchers have begun experiments that show that satellite links like the ones planned by Elon Musk’s Space X could deliver fiber speeds.
Developed by researchers at Hiroshima University, the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), and Panasonic, the technology is being shown this week at the IEEE’s International Solid-State Circuits Conference in San Francisco.
The project taps into effort by researchers wherein terahertz radio networks could help meet growing demand for higher speeds and higher bandwidths in wireless networks, which would operate at far higher frequencies than today’s 5GHz or below wireless technologies.

“This year, we developed a transmitter with 10 times higher transmission power than the previous version’s. This made the per-channel data rate above 100Gbps at 300GHz possible,” said professor Minoru Fujishima, of the graduate school of advanced sciences of matter at Hiroshima University.
The tested speeds are roughly 10 times faster than what’s seen on the 5G networks due to come online in 2020. The breakthrough could allow for far faster speeds for in-flight network connections, faster downloads to mobile devices, and ultrafast wireless links between base stations.
Such speeds would also be better at supporting real-time applications, complete with high data rates and minimum latency, compared with higher-latency fiberoptics. At the same time, it can deliver fiber-like speeds.
The transmitter operated in the 290GHz to 315GHz frequency range, which is deemed a “vast frequency resource” and is currently unallocated.
As such, the range in question falls in the relatively unoccupied 275GHz to 450GHz range, which is to be discussed at the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) 2019 under the International Telecommunication Union Radiocommunication Section (ITU-R).
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
Via ZDNet